We traveled to Jackson, MS and Duling Hall for this very special show before a sold-out audience on Nov. 15, 2024. Thank you, Jackson!
As usual, we featured a page-turning novel and a full range of eclectic music!
Guests:
Author Gerry Wilson – That Pinson Girl – Dramatic family saga set in Mississippi during World War I
“I loved it,” said author Steve Yarbrough. “Gripping and beautifully written; the characters and setting quickly spring to life.”
Music: Singer-songwriter Eric Stracener and the Straight Sinners – Acoustic roots songwriting! – Latest album: Superchief
Music: Hip Hop artist 5th Child with an ensemble from the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra!
Hosts: Jim Dees with our house band, Paul Tate and the Yalobushwhackers!
Airtimes:
Thursday, Dec. 5 – 8 am (CT) WYXR 91.7 FM Memphis, TN
Thursday, Dec. 5 – 6 pm (CT) WUMS 92.1 University of Mississippi
Saturday, Dec. 7 – 3 pm (ET) WUTC 88.1 FM Chattanooga, TN
7 pm (CT) Mississippi Public Broadcasting
9 pm (CT) Alabama Public Radio
Sunday, Dec. 8
3 pm (ET) WUOT | 91.9 FM, Knoxville
2 pm (MT) KNCE 93.5 | Taos, New Mexico
Archived here: Spotify, SoundCloud, Google Podcast, iHeart Radio
Host Jim Dees with the Yalobushwhackers: Paul Tate, Ricky Burkhead, Keon Love and Slade Lewis
Gerry Wilson is the author of the novel, That Pinson Girl.
In a bleak Mississippi farmhouse in 1918, Leona Pinson gives birth to an illegitimate son whose father she refuses to name, but who will, she is convinced, return from the war to rescue her from a hardscrabble life with a distant mother, a dangerous brother, and a dwarf aunt.
When, instead, her lover returns with a wife in tow, her dreams are shattered.
As her brother’ s violence escalates and her aunt flees, Leona must rely on the help of Luther Biggs, the son of Leona’ s grandfather and one of his former slaves, to protect her child.
Told against the backdrop of the deprivation of World War I, the tragedies of the influenza epidemic, and the burden of generations of betrayal, That Pinson Girl unfolds in lyrical, unflinching prose, engaging the timeless issues of racism, sexism, and poverty.
A seventh-generation Mississippian and a child of the hill country she writes about in That Pinson Girl, Gerry Wilson came of age during the turbulent civil rights era.
Her story collection, Crosscurrents and Other Stories, was nominated for the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Fiction Award.
Gerry is a recipient of a Mississippi Arts Commission Literary Arts Fellowship. Her stories have appeared in numerous journals. That Pinson Girl is her first novel.
For this very special Thacker/Duling Hall performance, hip hop artist 5th Child (Stephen Brown) will be accompanied by an ensemble from the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra.
5th Child’s recent releases include, Untitled and Which Way Is Up?
Brown is a musician and community leader who founded the Briarwood Arts Center on Briarwood Drive in Jackson in 2022.
The center and its programming have grown from one or two programs per week to nine to ten programs with multiple rooms being utilized simultaneously for networking and collaboration.
Programs include self-defense classes, quilting, candle-making, perfume-making classes, homework clubs, Afro-Caribbean dance classes, a gardening club, guided meditation, music production workshops, a writing workshop, a You Got Jokes Comedy Hour and a retro video game tournament.
Eric Stracener is a singer/songwriter based in Mississippi. His latest album is Superchief.
Eric’s songs tend toward the literary and evocative, and lean on the backdrop of southern landscapes, language, and culture.
His previous releases include Ocean Springs (2021, produced by Will Kimbrough and Neilson Hubbard) and Levee (2017).